Gerdab; a Dictated Scenario Justice For Iran- 2012 1 Gerdab; a Dictated Scenario Justice For Iran- 2012 Justice for Iran (JFI) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization established in July 2010. JFI uses methods such as documentation of human rights violations, collecting information, and research about authority figures who played a role in severe and widespread violation of human rights in Iran, as well as use of judicial, political and international mechanisms in place, to execute justice, remove impunity and bring about accountability to the actors and agents of human rights violations inside of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Pursuing its mission and as follow up to the report “Crime Without Punishment,” JFI is in the process of documenting the instances of sexual violence and rape suffered by female political prisoners in Iran since the establishment of Islamic Republic of Iran. The first installment of this report focused on the rapes that took place inside Iranian prisons during the 1980’s and was published in November 2011. The other two parts of this research, concerning the 1990’s and the 2000’s, will be published soon. The series of reports attempt to view torture and imprisonment in different decades in Iran through the eyes of sexuality and is set to explore the topic of violence, harassment and torture of the female political prisoners. By doing so, while legitimizing the pain and suffering endured by the victims of such heinous crimes, the actors and agents of those crimes will be introduced to the public and the society while measures will be taken, through producing valid documents, to hold such individuals accountable and if possible punish them. Furthermore, JFI is in the process of completing a data bank of information and personal data of the violators of human rights in Iran. This data bank is being compiled not only to be used in bringing forth legal cases, but also to increase the general public’s knowledge regarding the human rights violators in an effort to start the process of accountability. 2 Gerdab; a Dictated Scenario Justice For Iran- 2012 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 4 2. Some Victims of Human Rights Violation in the Gerdab Project ............................................ 6 2.1. Saeed Malekpour ............................................................................................................. 6 2.2. Vahid Asghari.................................................................................................................. 13 2.3. Ahmad-Reza Hashempour ............................................................................................. 19 3. Organizations and Officials Responsible for the Violation of Human Rights in Gerdab Project ........................................................................................................................................... 19 3.1. Center to Investigate Organized Crime - Cyber Crime Desk .......................................... 22 Cases of Violation of Human Rights ...................................................................................... 23 a. Gerdab (Muzillin Project) ............................................................................................ 23 b. Suppression of Protestors after the Election (Deep Sedition Project) ....................... 26 c. Iran Proxy (Woodpecker Project) ............................................................................... 27 d. Suppression of Human Rights Activists Society (Mersad Project) ............................... 28 e. Filtering of Internet Websites ..................................................................................... 30 3.2. Mohammad Sadeghi ...................................................................................................... 31 3.3. Reza Ja’fari ...................................................................................................................... 33 4. Legal Analysis of the Human Rights Violations Occurring in the Process of Gerdab Project ........................................................................................................................................... 37 4.1. Presumption of Innocence ............................................................................................. 37 4.2. Illegality of Arbitrary Arrest ............................................................................................ 38 4.3. Principle of Ban of Torture ............................................................................................. 40 4.4. Right to a Fair Trial ......................................................................................................... 41 Right to Retain an Attorney .................................................................................................. 41 Right to Obtain the Opinion of an Independent Expert ....................................................... 42 Right to Appeal...................................................................................................................... 43 4.5. Right to Redress ............................................................................................................. 44 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 46 Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 47 Translated Text of the Letter of Said Malekpour ...................................................................... 47 Translated Text of the Letter of Vahid Asghari ......................................................................... 50 Copy of the First Page of the Letter of Complaint of Vahid Asghari ......................................... 57 3 Gerdab; a Dictated Scenario Justice For Iran- 2012 1. Introduction In 2007, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), established an organization titled Center to Investigate Organized Crime (Cyber Crime Office). This center which is a division of the IRGC focuses on ensuring the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the cyber space. After its establishment, the first case file the center worked on was a project titled “Muzillin”1 (also known as Gerdab—Whirlpool) in the process of which 90 Persian websites that had pornographic content were shut down. A number of individuals were arrested under the title of Persian porn producers and subsequently transferred to Ward 2A of Evin Prison which is under the control of the IRGC. The Center to Investigate Organized Crime published the names and photographs of 45 of the individuals arrested and called them “Muzillin.” At the same time, the Iranian national television broadcast the confessions of some of the accused in a few episodes. In the televised confessions, the accused admitted that they intended to attack the cultural basis of the Islamic Rrepublic through corrupting and driving the youth from the right path as well as having political agendas against the government or Islam and received money from the American government to establish and produce content for the pornographic websites. A year and half later, a number of the detainees and relatives of the detainees broke their silence about the treatments endured that led to the said confessions. They filed complaint to official judicial authorities regarding long stretches of time spent in solitary cells, continuous and severe physical and psychological torture to obtain and record false confessions, lack of respect of the authority for the right of due process from the moment of arrest throughout the entire duration of preliminary investigation phase, depriving from the basic rights of visitation with the family or retaining an attorney or being provided with medical treatment, and other such calamities endured by the detainees. Although serious doubts existed regarding the legality of the detentions and preliminary research, as well as the extraction of confessions, the Special Prosecution Office to Investigate Computerized Crimes, the judicial arm of Gerdab Project issued indictments for majority of the detainees in late summer of 2009, requesting execution as punishment for some of them. This office is the same authority who had ordered the arrest of the accused, issued their temporary detention warrants, and was instrumental in the explanation of crimes and carrying out the preliminary research. Different branches of the Revolutionary Court, where the case file of those accused in the Muzillin Project were sent, issued sentences ranging from multiple years of imprisonment to execution. It has been reported that at least 7 individuals accused in this project have been sentenced to execution but we could only verify the issuance of execution order for five individuals. 1 Muzillin is an Arabic word meaning being lost or wayward. The Center to Investigate Organized Crime of the IRGC used this term to describe a project in which individuals have been arrested for collaborating, launching and producing pornographic content. 4 Gerdab; a Dictated Scenario Justice For Iran- 2012 At the time of finalizing this report, three of those five execution orders issued for the accused in Muzillin Project were upheld by the Supreme Court. The three individuals who are at imminent danger for execution are Ahmad Reza Hashempour,